Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Unicorn’ On CBS, Where Walton Goggins Plays A Widower Whose Friends Think Is A Catch

To say that CBS is betting heavily on The Unicorn is an understatement. The Walton Goggins-led comedy was promoted so heavily during the summer that it feels like we’ve seen the pilot in full already. But at least the jokes in the promos were pretty funny. Does that translate to the rest of the pilot?

THE UNICORN: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: From inside a massive freezer, we see someone pull out a long-frozen dish. “How ’bout a chicken parm?” the dad asks his daughters.

The Gist: It’s been a year since Wade Felton (Walton Goggins) lost his wife, and he and his daughters Grace (Ruby Jay) and Natalie (McKenzie Moss) have been living off the dishes well-wishers gave them during the days immediately following her death. His friends Delia (Michaela Watkins) and Forrest (Rob Corddry) are watching this and getting increasingly sad; Delia thinks that Wade needs to get out there again, and that he’s a heck of a catch.

Delia and Wade discuss this with the rest of their friend group: Ben (Omar Benson Miller) and Michelle (Maya Lynne Robinson). They see the single moms throwing themselves at Wade as he refs youth soccer games, an he just has no clue. Why is he so attractive? He’s a “unicorn”: He’s widowed, not divorced; he dotes on his kids; he has very little baggage; he owns his own business; he’s good-looking. So the four of them try to convince Wade to start dating again. But he doesn’t want to hurt his relationship with his girls. When he says he doesn’t want to lie to his kids, they all laugh. “That’s all I do, drive them places and lie,” says Ben.

When the last meal comes out of the freezer, a bit of a way for him and his daughters to keep their wife and mother with them, he finally realizes it’s time to move on. So they help Wade put up a Tinder-esque profile online. While he wants to be honest about his height and what he likes to do in bed, Delia and Michelle make sure to say he’s 6 feet tall and likes to cuddle. As soon as Michelle “helps” Wade post his profile, the notifications start pouring in. Why? He indicates on the profile he’s a widower.

He doesn’t want to be defined by that, though, and it comes through on the first date he goes on. After the woman (Bianca Kajlich) starts to walk out, Wade goes after her, saying he just wants to figure out who he is, without the tragedy of his wife’s death in the way. When he gets home, he finds Natalie has a boy in her room, and he starts to realize that he also needs to figure out how to be a single dad to his girls.

Our Take: Here’s a sign that The Unicorn is one of the better fall network shows this year: The best jokes for the pilot were shown ad nauseum on CBS promos from May until now, and yet when the jokes came up during the pilot, they were still funny. And that’s a testament to not only the writing of the staff under creators Mike Schiff and Bill Martin (The Soul Man), but it’s a tribute to the show’s stellar cast.

To be honest, Walton Goggins is the show’s straight man, despite being its top-billed star. Yes, he has the capacity to be funny, but the pilot shines when Watkins, Corddry, Miller and Robinson play off him and each other. Watkins always improves any show she’s in, and as the uber-involved Delia, she’s the standout. But it’s also funny when she tries to pass judgement on Michelle about giving her kids soda. “Stop judging me! You have one kid, and compared to four kids, one kid is like no kids.” That’s right before she tells her son Noah (Devin Bright) to put his pants back on.

What strikes us is that the people around Wade are so well defined right off the bat, which is rare in a pilot. A lot of times with shows like The Unicorn, the decision on whether to keep watching depends on whether you want to spend time with these people or not. And, when you see this friend group sit with Wade on his well-appointed deck, you want to be there with them. That’s no small feat from a pilot, especially a pilot that was so heavily promoted. Wade is a good guy, his kids aren’t precocious wise-asses, and his friends are caring and hilarious. Sometimes the key to a good sitcom is just that simple.

Sex and Skin: Besides a particular soccer mom hitting heavily on Wade, and Forrest saying to Ben that she’s “stupid hot!”, not much.

Parting Shot: At a soccer barbecue in his backyard, Wade’s friends are happy that he’s cooking again… and they realize that his cooking is terrible. The “stupid hot” mom Tracy Willvers (Natalie Ceballos) claims she loves it then you see her scowl when Wade walks away. And he realizes that Tracy is into him.

Sleeper Star: As we mentioned, Jay and Moss play Wade’s daughters just right. They’re smart, but not precocious, and they act like real teens/preteens. They’re a big part of the show, so it’ll be fun to see how they adjust to dad’s new dating life.

Most Pilot-y Line: Wade reveals to his daughters that their old cat didn’t actually run away; it’s the only lie that he’s ever told them. The fact that the younger girl still thought the cat would come back seems far-fetched.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Unicorn doesn’t bludgeon you with quippy lines. Even at this early stage, much of what makes it funny comes from the characters’ personalities. And to have that in a pilot is something that you don’t see very often.

Your Call:

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard and elsewhere.

Stream The Unicorn On CBS.com